323 



in point, one of his colleagues mentions that, at the beginning 

 of the seminary term, when forty or fifty new students have 

 usually matriculated, and without regard to the order of their 

 names, it has not unfrequently happened that the next day, 

 when the names of these students would be needed, he would 

 take his pen and write down the entire list in the order of 

 their matriculation, giving even the middle letter in each 

 name, and the classes they were to enter, purely from 

 memory. 



His investigations were always thorough and exhausting. 

 Every topic was examined wdth minuteness, even to such 

 remote circumstances as would escape ordinary minds. In 

 communicating his knowledge, too, he was in like manner 

 remarkable. His command of language has seldom been 

 surpassed. He always seemed to have at his tongue's end 

 the most appropriate words to express his ideas, and it was a 

 pleasure to sit and listen even to the cadence and flow of his 

 copious vocabulary. 



As a writer of '"facetirc," he possessed a wonderful power. 

 The Philadelphia iNIonthly Magazine, edited in 1827-8, by 

 Dr. J. C. Snowden, and published by Dobson, contains many 

 of his earlier pieces, and the Princeton Magazine is full of 

 them. His perception of the ludicrous was acutely instinctive, 

 and his wit and humor choice and exhaustless. As a reviewer 

 he was well known as occupying the very front rank. The 

 Biblical Repertory and Princeton Review, was indebted to 

 him for a large portion of its most attractive and telling 

 articles. These he produced apparently without effort. With 

 the greatest ease he could " steer from grave to gay," now 

 writing a playful slashing criticism upon some unfortunate 

 author, and now dealing with some ponderous question of phi- 

 lology. Some of these articles are among the most brilliant 

 and scathing in the whole range of periodical literature. 



Of his poetical talent the public knew less than of any 

 other. What he published was anonymous, and when a piece 

 Avould occasionally be traced to him, as in the case of '' The 

 Doomed Man," it seemed to annoy him. 



To Dr. xA.lexander's powers as a preacher, thousands can 



